


[fic] Little Life Shuffles Into The Day

by silly_cleo



Category: Bunheads
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Female Friendship, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silly_cleo/pseuds/silly_cleo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Boo and Sasha are on the road to becoming professional dancers. Michelle has some feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[fic] Little Life Shuffles Into The Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aphrodite_mine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphrodite_mine/gifts).



“What time was her flight getting in again?”

“What are you asking me for? I thought you were in charge of the details. God, Boo.”

“Oh, come on, don’t even try to act like you don’t care.” Boo elbowed Sasha in the side. “I know you’re looking forward to seeing Michelle just as much as I am.”

Sasha could probably have hidden her excitement from anyone else, but Boo had learned to see right through her. Sasha didn't even know why she still bothered, if she was honest with herself. She really couldn't wait to see Michelle, who was flying out just to see them and their show that night, and to celebrate their becoming the Joffrey Company’s newest junior members of the corps de ballet.

“Look, there she is!” Sasha looked through the doors to see Michelle, at the back of a long line of people all waiting to go through security. When Michelle caught sight of them, she started jumping up and down and waving her arms like a complete freak.

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Typical.”

Boo elbowed her and started jumping up and down and waving right back.

*

Michelle sat in the audience of the small auditorium, waiting for curtain up. She shifted in her seat awkwardly, looking around at the space and the rest of the people in the room. The auditorium, she noted with a pang, was beautiful, all smoothly swirled wood and plush velvety curtains and upholstery. With a further pang, she noted that she stuck out like a sore thumb. The rest of the audience was either proud parents (definitely older) or proud friends (depressingly younger).

She had sat through plenty of shows her students had put on over the years but she’d never shaken off the weirdness of not being on stage herself. Sure, she still got the stage fright, and multiplied to boot, big enough to include every single thing on stage, not just her own movements.

But at least with the recitals at Fanny’s, she was still involved, would either be backstage helping with quick changes or make-up (no Mace allowed), would have had to slide into her seat just as the curtain was coming up, breathless and apologetic.

Here, all she had to do was...watch.

Just as she was about to start making conversation with her neighbors, the curtain rose. (It was as if Sasha and Boo could sense what she was about to do. And had any sort of control over when the performance started.)

Even to Michelle’s trained eye, the performance was amazing, but you’d expect no less from the Joffrey, right, even their newest members?

She watched Boo and Sasha pirouette, jump and glide through their moves in a rush of pride, hope and if she was honest with herself, just a tiny bit of envy. The show was a recital, rather than a full ballet, with the performers dancing in solos, duets and group performances. Sasha, naturally, had a solo, which she performed flawlessly. Boo held her own in a beautiful and moving duet, though, getting to show off her grand jetes in what was traditionally the boy’s role (as ever, the performance and troupe had a definite shortage in that area). She did notice Boo mess up her footwork ever so slightly during one of the full corps dances but as she suspected every other member of the audience was watching their own performer, it certainly wasn't the end of the world.

Her thoughts drifted inexorably back to her own time with ABT. If she could go back now, would she change it? Would she rather be up on that stage herself, or in the audience?

She looked at her girls on stage and still wasn't sure.

*

Ignoring all the conspicuous ‘proud families this way’ type signs, and putting on her best ‘I have busy and important places to be’ game-face, Michelle snuck backstage to find Sasha and Boo after the show.

The distinctive aroma of Voltaren gel, deodorant and sweaty tights hit her like a club as soon as she walked backstage.

As usual, even though the show was over, chaos still reigned, with dancers darting about in various states of undress. She kept going until she spotted Boo and Sasha, sitting in front of a mirror and talking a mile a minute as they took off their stage make-up.

“You guys, that was amazing!” she called, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders and grinning at them both in the mirror.

“Michelle!” they both shrieked back in unison, and flung their arms around her neck.

“Did you really like it?” Boo asked.. “Did you notice one of my assembles was over instead of under? Oh god, it was so obvious, we all had to look the sa-”

“Oh, come on, Boo, I’m sure no one was looking,” Sasha said as she turned back to the mirror, the moment evidently over.

Michelle lightly punched Sasha in the arm, then gave Boo a squeeze. “You were both great. Boo, I did notice that little slip, but the main thing is you covered it well, and you carried on, so 10 points to Hufflepuff, kiddo.” Boo smiled, looking relieved. “Now come on, are we still going out tonight, or what? This old gal wants to hit the Big Apple!” She struck a pose.

“Well, I had a few ideas about that, actually,” said Boo, turning back to the mirror as well. “We could go to the Bell House in Brooklyn? It's so cool, it's this old 1920s warehouse where they do shows, now, and it's got a great bar--I don't know what's on tonight, but they're open pretty late."

“Ugggh,” Sasha groaned theatrically, “Brooklyn might as well be on the moon. I can’t be bothered. Besides, what if they have anything like that Disney Princesses show we saw the other day? I’m not sure I could handle seeing something like that with Michelle.”

Michelle punched Sasha again, slightly harder this time. “Oh come on, I’m not your mother. And even if I was, you do know how you got here, right? Also, hello, Vegas showgirl? Pretty hard to shock over here!” Sasha rolled her eyes. Michelle mentally kicked herself for the mother comment, but Sasha had hurt her feelings, damnit.

“Well, what about food then? I’m starving,” Boo burbled on hastily. “New York has all sorts of weird places to eat, like the restaurant that only serves mac and cheese, and the one that only serves meatballs, and Potatopia, and that milkshake place....”

“New York does still have restaurants with more than one thing on the menu, right?”

Boo laughed. “Yeah, there’s a nice Italian place near our apartment, for a start.”

“Well, let’s stop talking about it and get going! Plans are for losers anyway. Come on, come on, come on, let’s move it!”

*

In the end, they wound up back at Boo and Sasha’s apartment with Chinese takeout. There was an awkward moment where both girls were clearly thrown over whether to admit to having alcohol around to offer Michelle, swiftly followed by another awkward moment where, having remembered that they were both adults who could legally drink now and offered it, they were clearly torn about having any themselves.

Sasha lost patience first, grabbing two more wine glasses and shoving one of them at Boo.

“We’re all adults here,” she hissed, and took a big swallow from her own glass.

Michelle rolled her eyes and raised her own glass. “To both your glittering careers.”

Things got considerably less awkward part-way into the second bottle of wine. Michelle was totally unsurprised to discover that Boo was a total lightweight, and between her slightly drunken giggles and the wine, even Sasha had loosened up a bit.

“Oh, here’s a piece of news for you - Truly and Milly have turned Sparkles into a partnership, and it’s actually making money!”

“That’s great!” Boo’s smile was painfully sincere.

“But enough about home, tell me more about Joffrey.”

*

“You guys have seen photos of that outfit I used to dance in in Vegas, right?” Sasha and Boo both nodded, Boo already giggling even though she hadn't heard the story yet.

“Well, during one show, one of my boobs actually _popped right out_ mid fan-kick.”

“What did you do?” Sasha now looked slightly horrified.

“Just carried on dancing! What else was I gonna do, just take a break and stuff it back in there?” Boo’s giggles started to take on a slightly hysterical pitch. “And it’s not like the show did not call for topless girls coming on stage right after us! Thank god it was at least towards the end of the number.”

Boo continued to giggle to herself for several minutes. Michelle sighed and drank more wine, wishing she hadn’t brought up Vegas, not tonight. She looked around the apartment, just as perfectly stylish as Sasha’s first place had been, and so different from her own first student digs, and sighed. She looked across at Sasha, who was fiddling with her chopsticks.

“Michelle?”

“Yeah, kid?”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You want to come to warm-up with us tomorrow morning?”

Michelle opened her mouth on a snarky response about hangovers, then closed it again. She smiled. “Yeah. I’d like that a lot.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Little Life Shuffles Into The Day (podfic)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10024256) by [Caveat_Lector](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caveat_Lector/pseuds/Caveat_Lector)




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